O.C. native on team that wins collegiate parachuting competition

Dove Canyon native Jeremy Krohngold and his Air Force Legacy teammates compete in the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships in Eloy, Ariz. The team won a gold medal in the four-man formation event.PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN STOKES

About Team Air Force Legacy

This was Jeremy Krohngold's second time competing and winning at the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships.

In 2011, his team Air Force Legacy took gold during the four-man formation event and during the six-man event. Krohngold set a speed record for individual accuracy that year, plus snagged a bronze in team accuracy.

Krohngold faced a nail-biting contest at the U.S. Parachuting Association Nationals Competition in November. Air Force Legacy initially tied for first place during the four-way formation event, taking second place following a "jump off" against team Air Force Paradigm.

That made victory during the December collegiate championships a bit sweeter, as Krohngold's team beat Air Force Paradigm to win gold in the four-way. The Dove Canyon native's team also set a new collegiate record by scoring 36 points in the sixth round of that event, passing the 2009 record of 34 points.

DOVE CANYON – Jeremy Krohngold has jumped out of a perfectly good plane 690 times.

One of those jumps earned the Dove Canyon native a gold medal, as Krohngold and his team took home a win during the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships.

"Every time I get to the door to leave the plane, there's always a little bit of nerves and anxiety," said Krohngold, a 21-year-old senior at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. "But the second I get out and start falling, I feel very relaxed. It's calming. It's just very freeing."

Krohngold and his teammates – Kyle Land, Brett Brunner and Travis Grindstaff – have been jumping together for 2 1/2 years.

It started the summer between Krohngold's freshman and sophomore year, as he and 400 other cadets at the academy joined a parachuting program. They trained for 30 hours on the ground so they could jump solo their first time out, skipping the usual step of starting tandem with an instructor. The cadets each made five solo jumps and received their parachuting badges that summer; Krohngold was hooked.

He tried out for the academy's jump team during his sophomore year. He was one of 25 students chosen from 150 applicants to make the team, where he was paired up with Land, Brunner and Grindstaff.

The four were among 87 students from 14 colleges and universities across the country who used their winter breaks to compete in the college parachuting championships. The event is put on by the United States Parachute Association and took place Dec. 29-31 at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, an hour southeast of Phoenix.

Competitors squared off in four disciplines: formation, vertical formation, sport accuracy and classic accuracy. During the four-way formation, teams jump from a plane more than two miles up and then use 35 seconds of freefall time to create set geometric formations – grabbing a wrist or a knee, spinning in unison or making certain shapes. The team that nails the formations the most times during each fall wins.

"I was very proud," said Krohngold's father, Steve Krohngold, who went to Arizona to watch the competition. "They put so much hard work, so much time and effort into this, it was a great accomplishment."

Jeremy Krohngold's favorite move is called Block 4, where the rest of his teammates spin 360 degrees together while he moves around them. One member then grabs his feet and pulls him back into formation.

"I just love the feeling of moving around through the air," said Krohngold, who was raised in Dove Canyon from age 4.

Krohngold's interest in skydiving started during his junior year at Mission Viejo High School. He attended the U.S. Air Force Academy's summer seminar and listened as speakers boasted about different programs for students – including the school's jump program. He came home that summer and told his parents that one day he wanted to jump out of planes.

"I was a bit nervous," his mother, Joanie Krohngold, said with a laugh. "He had been a gymnast and a pole vaulter with the high school track team, and he was on the trampoline, so I was used to him being up in the air. But this was a much higher elevation."

Jeremy Krohngold's younger sister, Mariah, was also an athlete on the trampoline until she broke her back, her mom said. The 14-year-old has since recovered and is a cheerleader at Mission Viejo High – though she's expressed interest in following her brother's footsteps straight out the plane door when she turns 18. By then, Jeremy Krohngold hopes to have the necessary certification to fly tandem with his sister as her instructor.

The family will fly to Colorado this May to attend Krohngold's graduation ceremony. He's majoring in civil engineering but hopes to become a pilot. He is waiting to find out if he'll get to join the USAF flight program, with his heart set on flying fighter jets or helicopters.

After roughly 400 jumps together, the team will soon have to part ways, as Land heads to dental school, Grindstaff heads to medical school and Brunner sets out to practice civil engineering at a base in Japan.

Krohngold has no plans to stop jumping out of perfectly good planes, though, with his own parachute rig ready for civilian jumps following graduation.

Dove Canyon native Jeremy Krohngold and his Air Force Legacy teammates compete in the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships in Eloy, Ariz. The team won a gold medal in the four-man formation event. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN STOKES
Jeremy Krohngold, right, and his teammates from Air Force Legacy pose with medals won during the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships in Eloy, Ariz. This marked the second year in a row that the Dove Canyon native and his team received gold medals in the competition. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN STOKES
Jeremy Krohngold, far right, practices an "L" formation with his Air Force Legacy teammates at Skydive Arizona jump site. The team recently took first place in the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships. COURTESY OF JEREMY KROHNGOLD
Jeremy Krohngold comes in for a precision accuracy landing during the National Collegiate Parachuting Championships in Eloy, Ariz. Krohngold and his team Air Force Legacy took first place in the four-way formation event. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN STOKES

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